Conference Agenda

Strategic planning is becoming increasingly important in the public sector despite - or perhaps because of - growing uncertainties and increasing financial pressure (Bryson et al., 2024; Bryson et al., 2018). However, there is limited evidence regarding the question of how to do strategic planning in practice, particularly at municipal level (George, 2021). While the literature suggests different tools and concepts for strategic planning, there is a lack of empirical evidence about the practical feasibility as well as the impact of such tools on strategic planning quality and plan implementation.

This study addresses this research gap and aims to validate the applicability of George's (2021) “3P” strategic planning framework, which connects People (Strategic Planning Team), Process (Procedural Rationality within Strategic Planning) and Plan (Strategic Decision Quality). The framework assumes that successful strategic plan implementation depends on a causal chain, connecting people, process and plan.

The study aims to examine how the application of George’s “3P” framework (2021) influences the quality of strategic planning and the success of strategic plan implementation at municipal level . Furthermore, the study aims to derive broader implications regarding the feasibility of applying the 3P framework in the context of strategic planning.

The study employs a holistic case study approach (Yin, 2018), focusing on a city with 20,000 inhabitants, situated within the Zurich metropolitan area. As a politically autonomous city with its own executive and legislative bodies, the city presents a particularly suitable case for analysis.

The research design consisted of three main steps: First, the "3P" framework was operationalized and applied in collaboration with municipal officials and staff during the development of the Strategic Plan 2022–2026. Second, a structured survey was conducted among all elected members of the government and municipal employees to collect empirical data. Third, the findings were triangulated with additional official documents (e.g., project reports) to enhance the validity of the results.

Preliminary findings indicate that the “3P” framework has a positive influence on the perceived quality of the strategic planning and its successful implementation

A further finding is that transparency and continuous communication over the entire planning and implementation period are crucial for acceptance and implementation success.

The study provides general implications for both practice and future research. First, it finds that the “3P” framework can serve as a valuable framework for implementing a systematic and holistic strategic planning process - one that particularly emphasizes the integration of diverse cognitive styles and rationalities (e.g., political, administrative) within the strategic planning team. However, the authors find a need for further empirical studies to gain additional insights into what works best, in which situations, and why. Second, the 3P framework must be operationalized in a manner that aligns with the specific organizational context and culture, a topic which has not been addressed in the 3P framework. Third, the study provides a set of practical recommendations for how the framework can be operationalized and further developed to enhance its applicability in different municipal or organizational settings.

Strategic goal formation in social and health governance faces significant challenges due to the involvement of multiple actors with competing interests and varying interpretations. Public governance aims for effectiveness but translating macro-level policy objectives into meso- and micro-level actions is complex. Strategy is not just a document (Whittington 2006), but a social activity that requires practice. Limited knowledge exists about the actual practices through which public administrators engage in strategizing. Understanding strategic goal formation is essential for improving the implementation of policy objectives.

This study addresses this gap by examining strategic goal formation in public organizations, focusing on interaction between top managers and middle managers. The Strategy-as-practice (SAP) framework emphasizes agency in strategizing and recognizes a broader group of actors involved in strategy implementation (Jarzabkowski et al. 2007). The study highlights the complexity of strategizing effective action in public governance, where organizational micro- and meso-level processes are affected by macro-level strategies such as political steering and policy goals.

This paper contributes to the understanding of public managers’ strategic work. Typically, strategic activity is part of the core work of top managers of the organization. However, SAP broadens the scope of strategic actors to include middle management and employees. Middle management plays a crucial role as strategic actors and change agents, especially as organizations become increasingly complex and complicated (Rouleau & Balogun 2011). Interaction between top and middle management shapes goal formation.

Since a shared understanding of strategic activities in goal formation is crucial, we aim to identify the factors that facilitate or hinder shared strategic understanding between top and middle management. The research question is: What kind of challenges can be identified in creating shared strategic understanding between top management and middle management?

The data consists of interviews with top managers (N=21) and middle managers (N=23) in Finnish health and social service organizations. This newly established regional governance level operates between national and regional policymaking. The role of strategic goal formation is emphasized in these new administrative agencies, as they must define policy objectives that support both national and organizational goals. Data was analyzed with abductive content analysis

Our results show the managers struggle in creating a common understanding of strategic goals and to define organizational practices for implementing national reform policies. Managers are key actors in organizational-level strategy work, where the implementation of policy objectives is part of strategizing. Effective knowledge sharing and collaboration are crucial for strategizing, but siloed environments obstruct the formation of knowledge and common understanding.

Jarzabkowski, P., Balogun, J., & Seidl, D. (2007). Strategizing: The challenges of a practice perspective. Human relations, 60(1), 5-27.

Whittington, R. (2006). Completing the practice turn in strategy research. Organization Studies 27(5) 613–634. DOI: 10.1177/0170840606064101

Rouleau, L. & Balogun, J. (2011). Middle managers, strategic sensemaking, and discursive competence. Journal of Management Studies 48(5), 953-983. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.2010.00941.x

Strategic planning is recognized as a key instrument for enhancing government effectiveness and generating public value (Bryson, 2018). National legislators and international institutions (i.e., OECD) have recommended, or mandated its adoption (George et al., 2020). Several scholars emphasize the need for a comprehensive exploration of the field (Poister, 2010; Vandersmissen & George, 2023), leading to expanded research on public strategic planning and the overall understanding of the discipline (Bryson et al., 2018; George et al., 2020; Wolf & Floyd, 2017). Vandersmissen and George (2023), through a systematic literature review, highlight both the presence of outdated theoretical studies such as Bryson et al. 2010; Poister et al. 2010; George and Desmidt 2014) and the necessity to analyse the relations among key variables influencing the development of strategic planning in the public sector.

Based on a recent theoretical framework developed by Vandersmissen and George (2023), this study investigates the organizational antecedents of strategic planning in public organizations, focusing on proximal outcomes (i.e., quality of strategic planning plans). Five key organizational drivers are examined: organizational size (Krøtel et al., 2017), organizational design (Joseph & Sengul, 2025), technology support (Nguar, 2022), stakeholder engagement (Kujala et al., 2022), and management accountability (Klass et al., 2018).

Since strategic planning is not a one-size-fits-all approach (Abner et al., 2017) further theorization is required “about which ‘design’ of strategic planning in public organizations is adequate for which challenge” (Vandersmissen & George, 2023, p. 650). This underscores the necessity of exploring how different configurations of factors determine the effectiveness of strategic planning processes in different organizational contexts. To fill these gaps, this paper addresses the following research question: Which combinations of organizational drivers foster the quality of strategic planning in the public sector?

Methodologically, Bryson and colleagues claim that “useful findings about strategic planning have come via multiple methodologies, including […] qualitative single and comparative case studies” (Bryson et al., 2018, p.334). Existing research primarily uses traditional data collection methods, highlighting the need for more advanced data analysis methods (Vandersmissen & George, 2023). Therefore, this paper runs a fuzzy-set QCA (Ragin 2000) to identify configurations of organizational conditions leading to high-quality strategic plans in the public sector.

The analysis focuses on Italy’ 20 Regions, which following recent reforms have mandatorily implemented a new strategic tool (i.e., PIAO), aimed at integrating multiple fragmented planning documents while focusing on the creation of public value (Cepiku et al., 2023). The Italian context has been selected for its centralized and mandatory approach to strategic planning, a characteristic identified as a key driver for the effective adoption of strategic planning in local governments (Sztando, 2017; Hintea & Ţiclău, 2015).

Results reveal different but functionally equivalent configurations of causal conditions leading to both the presence and absence of the outcome of interest: the quality of strategic plans by promoting better alignment of strategic and value-oriented goal setting. These findings offer both theoretical and practical insights that open new research pathways and may be generalizable to institutional contexts characterized by legal requirements in the strategic planning.